Lady Cats to host home tourney

by Karissa Nichols

After a tough week 4 for the Lady Cats, they ended week 5 with a win for Freshman through Varsity in Wind River against the Lady Cougars.  

Thursday evening the Lady Cats battled it out in a conference match against the Lady Worland Warriors but fell short in 4 games to finish off the night.  Scores against the Lady Warriors were 14-25, 25-19, 17-25 and 18-25. Coach Shannon Hill had the following to say about the match against Worland, “We set a team goal to serve over 90% and we met that goal with a 90.79 serve percentage and we had a serve receive/ passing team average of 2.28 against some tough servers. I always say our serving and passing will win matches and unfortunately this time we fell short even though our stats looked great. Looking at stats again, we found that we need to be finishing more balls.  The girls played tough against Worland but in the 4th game it was who was going to finish more points.  Lady Cats were 18-18 and then a missed serve and a couple dropped balls, we let Worland finish 25-18. We are right there and are working to turn the corner here mid season.”

Highlights of week 5 against Worland include 10 kills by both Ina King and Hanna Hill,  with 3 added  by Kali Simeral, and 21 assists going to Lexi Garrison.  Brooklynn Williams added 4 aces to the game with Hanna adding 3.  Hanna added 15 digs, with Lexi and Jayssie each adding 13 and Dazlynn Hunt digging up 12 of her own during the game. Tensie Verhasselt and Ina King both contributed 3 blocks to the match.  

Junior Varsity also played the Lady Warriors on Thursday and fought hard but ended up falling short in 2 games with scores of 19-25 and 18-25. Coach Larry Alwin said “Worland beat us because they covered the floor better, they picked up everything that we hit at them.  They are and will be a good team that is hard to beat.”

The Freshman Lady Cats weren’t able to walk away with a win against the Lady Warriors Thursday night, with a loss in 3 games.  When Coach Erika Pehringer was asked about the game against the Warriors she said “The match on Thursday against Worland went to 3 sets. We won the first set and dropped the second.  In the third, the girls were able to clean up their defense, but it wasn’t quite enough and we lost the match.” Pehringer said, “she noticed in that game that there’s a rotation we tend to get stuck in, and this week the focus will be on keeping a tight defense there so we can regain our ball.”  

After a hard fought game on Thursday, the Lady Cats traveled to Wind River High School on Saturday to take on the Lady Cougars.  All three teams had success against the Cougars and walked off the court on a high after a win.  The Varsity Lady Cats were able to beat the Lady Cougars in 3 games with scores of 25-11, 25-22, 25-23.   Coach Shannon Hill stated that against Wind River, “We discussed our need to finish more balls and we did just that.  We just missed the 90% serving goal with a 89.3% but stayed consistent with our passing at 2.2 and averaged 9.3 kills per set vs  7 kills per set against Worland. We beat Wind River in 3 with a close one in the 3rd but this is a competitive group of girls and I love watching them when the games get tight. We needed that win in 3 for our confidence moving forward.”

Impressive stats helped the Lady Cats get the win against Wind River with Ina contributing 17 kills and Brooklynn and Hanna adding 5 a piece. Lexi added 26 assists to the match.  Brooklynn had 2 ace serves with Dazlynn adding 1.  Dazlynn and Brooklynn led the team with digs, with 15 for Dazlynn and 14 for Brooklynn.  

Junior Varsity Lady Cats also walked off the court against the Lady Cougars with a win. Scores for the JV game were 25-7 and 25-17.  Coach Larry Alwin said “We got a much needed win against Wind River.  Shout out to Skylar Lippincott for leading our offensive attack from the outside which was all made possible by the set assists from Maile McCumber, with great passing from the back row. Wind River had no response to our electric offense.  We still have plenty to clean up to get where I as a coach am satisfied, but we all know that is an impossible goal because I never want to stop seeing them grow.”

Lady Cats who contribute to the success of the Junior Varsity team are Peyton Green, Skylar Lippincott, Milli Johnson, Alix Sorenson, JolieAnn Herring, Layla Epperson, Davdine King and Maile McCumber.

When asked about the Freshman Lady Cats win against Wind River, Coach Pehringer said “Against Wind River, the girls won 2-0, and we were really able to focus on some aggressive serving and setting up our front row for some big attacks.” 

The Freshman Lady Cats include Davdine King, Layla Epperson, Kenzie Frederick, Merika Amend, Autumn Cornwell, Ella Slover, Morgan Jones and Lily Buller.

Coach Shannon Hill said, “I am looking forward to lots of success during our home tourney next weekend.” 

You can watch the Lady Cats in action on their home court during homecoming week, Friday and Saturday at the Bobcat Invite in Thermopolis.